July Momentum-Money Report

July started out very strong for DH though it was unremarkable the second half. However, he earned another $100 VISA gift card, which I have not recorded as such, but it is not an insignificant amount. I didn't see much in terms of a raise because the first check of the month is entirely June, and the second was only about 70% July, but none the less, an increase. We prepaid another chunk of vacation expense, fully paid for choir camp, and managed to put actual cash away into the savings account. Considering we bought a new router and a laptop, July was pretty good. Actually, we are seeing a lot of the fruits of June, since the VISA only goes through July10th expenses. I'm not so sure we will be so giddy reporting on August. Even though August is technically the month with the third paycheck, we lived a little large in July and will be so in early August in the restaurant department. Oh well, next months calculations. I'll revel in the fact that we actually topped $3,000, $3,126 to be exact. in cash and priority spending. As I regularly share, here is our priority plan for 2018, intentionally drawing upon $13,000 from last year’s savings.

1.      Fully fund the Roth                                              $13,000

2.      Once in a lifetime family vacation                        $15,000 ($3,000 added)

3.      College Fund                                                       $12,000

4.      College and Show Choir Road Trips                   $  1,500

5.      All State Camp                                                    $     650

6.      Home Upgrades                                                  $  9,000                                                                                                                                  $51,150

Annual Savings Goal          $38,150 ($51,150 priority budget-$13,000 from savings)

Roth                                          $13,000

Taken from Savings                 -$13,000

Vacation expenses paid             $10,501

College/Show Choir trips paid   $ 1,282

All State Payments                    $   650

Cash Savings Increase             $   810

Total Savings achieved             $13,243

Balance to save:  $24,907 

Subtracting another third pay check month for me and increase check at years end when I've fully funded my 401K, (total approximately ($5,750) our monthly savings target is now $3,832, up from the beginning of June by $110. EEK-not going in the right direction

Croissant and Baguette Fund: This is the collection of loose change, aspirationally being applied towards the delicious croissants and baguettes we plan to eat on our trip.  I wrote about my change plan  here. Saved in tea tin is now $21.19, as we are not big change acquirers ad I found no new money to add to the tin.